In 1950, after 13 films, she more or less retired from acting to raise her three children by actor Basil Sydney. Howard also began a second career as a Writer. She wrote three well-received novels, Two Persons Singular (1960), A Private View (1961) and Going On (2000). She also wrote plays, including Broken Silence, which was produced by the BBC. After her divorce from Sydney, Howard married American psychoanalyst Joel Shor, and moved to California in 1964.